Facebook releases its new version of Lexicon, which will now track personal, recreational and political sentiments.
Christine Pepin
Media Coordinator
With Facebook’s release of its updated version of Lexicon, users are now able to gauge more than just the popularity of certain words and topics. Since its release in April, this tool has only allowed users to view how many times a word or phrase appears on profiles, walls or event groups. The updated Lexicon will now feature the following:
- Trends between users from different genders and ages
- Maps displaying where topics are being discussed within the US, Great Britain and Canada
- Word and phrase associations to other topics over a period of time
- Total unique users mentioning a topic and posting about it
- Comparison of topics based on emotional appeal and overall user sentiment of a particular topic
- List of keywords mentioned most often in profiles
Today, users can view these features in a sample format with only 17 terms including: Obama, McCain, soccer, football, baseball, dancing, basketball, politics, hip hop, techno, hockey, jazz, volleyball, republicans, democrats, Palin and Bidden. Although the interface may change when Facebook creates the platform for individualized searches, this new version appears user-friendly with a variety of charts and graphs.
The sample version of Lexicon focuses heavily on political words and topics, providing campaigners with additional marketing insight to the younger demographic segment that Facebook serves. This information may be extremely valuable in the final months of the campaign and for each political party’s positioning strategies. Users can now stay more in tuned with what their peers are discussing and fulfill their curiosity of other’s political and recreational sentiments.
